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Diversity, equity & inclusion

Banking on Racial Equality – two years on

Two years on since we launched our Banking on Racial Equality report – what’s changed?

In October 2020 we launched our Banking on Racial Equality: A Roadmap for Positive Change report which set out ten commitments, and a new target for Black colleagues in senior roles, to make a meaningful, positive difference to our colleagues, customers and communities from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.

Take a look at our commitments.

 

Watch this video to see how we’re progressing against each commitment so far:

Commitment

Update

1.       We will build a more inclusive culture with mandatory training for all colleagues and an ethnicity ally programme

  • Introduced mandatory training and targeted learning for leaders
  • Launched reciprocal mentoring programmes
  • Welcomed 1,008 ethnicity allies

2.       We will enhance existing group ethnicity pay gap reporting

  • Published more detailed ethnicity pay gap reports in February 2021 and 2022
3.       We will champion colleagues’ potential with multiple accelerated and focused development programmes
  • Provided targeted support through Career Masterclass and IGNITE for ethnic minority colleagues
  • Focused on inclusive development, resulting in strong ethnic minority representation on our Talent Academy scheme
4.       We will ensure our recruitment processes remain free from bias and also ensure, where minimum criteria have been met, we continue to have Black representation on our UK Early Career programmes
  • Made our recruitment more inclusive with a recruitment ‘Yes Check’
  • Launched learning module for interviewers
  • Welcomed 850 inclusive interview ambassadors

5.       We will not tolerate racial discrimination towards our colleagues by anyone

 

 

  • Changed our account terms & conditions to include racism as a reason to close an account
  • Made it clear that we won’t tolerate discrimination through the display of ‘A safe place for all’ information in branches and offices

6.       We will deliver enterprise and career education programmes to our UK Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities

 

 

 

  •  Ensure over 20% of all our specialist enterprise support goes to ethnic minority businesses
  • Acting on recommendations developed with the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship for advancing the UK’s ethnic minority businesses
  • Reached over 14,000 secondary school pupils in ethnically diverse areas though our CareerSense programme
7.       We will understand socioeconomic barriers facing Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic customers through research and strategic partnerships.
  • Researching the relationship between ethnicity and banking
  • We’re bringing the voices of underrepresented young people into the bank by ongoing engagement with the NatWest Thrive leadership group
  • Collaborating with Fair4All Finance on better financial inclusion for ethnic minority communities

8.       We will amplify Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic voices through our marketing and communication platforms.

 

  • Working with an independent specialist to ensure greater diversity in our marketing and communications
  • We’re learning more through Customer Insights and you’ll hear more from underrepresented voices and stories through the NatWest Thrive marketing
9.       We will ensure our suppliers are as diverse as our customers and communities

 

  • New Spot Buy Team launched in July to offer sourcing opportunities to ethnic minority businesses through our new relationship with MSDUK, an organisation advocating for diverse suppliers 
  • EcoVadis continue to assess suppliers’ ESG performance and our suppliers perform very strongly against EcoVadis’ Ethics and Labour & Human Rights benchmark 
  • Annual review of the Supplier Charter complete
10.   We will build financial capability with our UK Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues, customers and communities
  • Built a Language Translation Hub to support customers for whom English isn’t their first language with translations in Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish and Spanish
  • Delivering Scam and Fraud Awareness Seminars in a variety of languages including a Punjabi session live on Sky’s Sikh Channel
  • We’re training colleagues to facilitate Financial Foundations Workshops, designed to give people the skills and confidence to manage their money. Recently delivered our first sessions to charities in London supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities

Banking on racial equality targets - We have targets for Black and ethnic minority representation among our senior leaders

1.       In 2018 we set a target to have at least 14% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic leaders in our UK senior roles by 2025
  • At the end of 2021 representation had grown from 8% in 2018 to 11%
2.       In 2020, we set a new target to have 3% Black colleagues in UK senior roles by 2025
  • At the end of 2021 we’d reached 1.5% - so we have more to do.
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